After season of adversity, Stratford ready for championship

Back when the weather was as warm as it’s supposed to be, Paul Carroll started hearing it.

Stratford cracked 40 points in its first three games, winning by 32, 35 and six points (to GHSA Class A second-round playoff team Wilkinson County).

“I think the other coaches saw it earlier in the year,” the second-year Stratford head coach said. ”I don’t know any more. They would tell me, ‘Coach, we’re gonna be a dang good football team, we’re gonna make a run at this thing.’ And this and that.”

The graduate of Hardaway in Columbus and Georgia Southern hit the internal mute button, paying not a lick of attention, because thinking about things months away means nothing. It gets in the way of thinking about what was days away: the next game.

“That’s something they looked at,” he said. “I just, I never looked at it that way. I said I’m not into speculating, I’m into getting it done.”

And the “it” is simply the next game. Carroll plans ahead, but he doesn’t look ahead.

Now, he can finally do both at the same time.

Carroll gets an extra day for all of it as he gets Stratford ready for the GIAA Class 4A championship game Saturday night at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium.

Even now, Carroll talks more about the next game, rather than what the next game means.

 “It’s chaotic,” Carroll said. “We’re trying to keep it (normal). I just know that there’s a game to be played and it’s the last game of the season, and this is what just about every high school football player in the country wants to have the opportunity for.”

When Carroll got the job, his stress level rose, along with his concerns about strength, physical and otherwise.

It was a concern throughout his first season, a 7-3 year that ended with a tight loss at Brookstone in the first round.

It remained a focal point in the offseason, and again in camp. Carroll liked the improving team outlook and work ethic, but strength was still something of an issue.

But less and less each month, each week. That emphasis has paid the kinds of dividends that lead to a championship game.

Increased mental toughness goes hand in hand with physical toughness, and the Eagles have shown both this season. A 5-0 start was followed by a two-game losing streak, and some in-house adjustments.

Stratford answered adversity and here it is, practicing for the last game of the year..

Discussing Maddox Whitehead brings a smile to Carroll’s face. Whitehead may be the poster child for what Carroll has been looking for in his first venture coaching at a private school.

“He’s the real deal,” Carroll said of the 6-foot-2, 220-pound senior defender. “His motor is always running. The biggest thing with him that I’ve seen is the fact that he dang got in that weight room and bought in to what we were trying to do.”

Whitehead added weight and muscle, noticeably so.

“It’s just amazing,” Carroll said. “I should’ve taken a picture of him when he first started.”

Whitehead epitomizes a difference between 2024 and 2025.

“He’s one of those guys that’s got some toughness about him,” Carroll said. “He’s got a little (attitude) about him at times. And there are other guys are like that.

“I’m not talking disrespectful. He’s a little hard-nosed about some things.”

He has plenty of company in the weight room.

The increased physicality has helped make up for a lack of experience. The Eagles are in their first championship game since 2022 and second since 2013 with only four seniors currently in uniform.

They lost a huge senior piece nearly six weeks ago when Tyler Stephens, on target for a run at a 2,000-yard season, went down early against Mount de Sales with a season-ending knee injury.

Stratford thumped Brookstone 41-14 back on Sept. 19, but it’s not a game that Carroll has put much into.

For one, that was 28 quarters and seven games ago. The teams that line up on Nov. 22 are different from the ones who lined up two months and a few days earlier.

Plus, to Carroll’s mind, that score might be a bit deceiving.

“Yeah, we beat them, but when I went back and looked at the film, they didn’t play their best game and we didn’t play our best game,” Carroll said. “We left points on the board, and defensively, we left some things out there.

“We had more explosive plays than they did, but …”

Saturday’s matchup will be more even in that regard with the absence of Stephens, a breakaway runner who could get to the edge and then get into the secondary in a flash.

Both teams have done some tweaking since then.

“Running the football,” Carroll said of the Cougars. “Offensively, they decided they were going to run the football a lot more.”

The Cougars have averaged about the same number of carries in the final four regular-season games as they did in the first five, with Stratford in the middle, about 23 carries a game.

In playoff wins over St. Anne-Pacelli and FPD, though, Brookstone has been ground bound with 34 carries a game.

Quarterback Broughton Branch remains of huge impact, having passed for 2,003 yards, 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound junior is unafraid to tuck and run, leading Brookstone with 469 yards. The Cougars have five backs who get a fair number of carries.

In the 13-0 defensive semifinal win over FPD, Branch was 12 of 16 for 111 yards, and Brookstone ran for 126 yards on 30 carries, led by Sammy Laboy’s 43 yards on seven tries.

Thus, Stratford’s defense faces a balanced offense and playmaking quarterback. But that unit is playing pretty well for the Eagles.

Stratford is giving up 16 points a game, its best mark since allowing 14.8 in 2017, a 10-2 season that ended in the second GHSA playoff game, a 14-7 loss to Mount Paran Christian.

Carroll is pretty happy with his defense despite any reluctance to think too positively or, well, think too far ahead.

“I was happy on Friday night,” he said after the 33-6 win over George Walton. “I’m back to square one getting ready for the next game.”

Brookstone won’t have to deal with the speed of Stephens, who went off for 234 yards on 21 carries with five touchdowns in the first meeting.

But freshman Aaron Jefferson ran for100 yards on 14 carries in that game, and quarterback Tucker Johnston completed 8 of 11 for 100 yards and a touchdown.

Jefferson, also a starting linebacker, is battling an ankle injury.

“I’m fine,” Jefferson said. “I’ll be great by (this) week. I feel like I’m playing good, and I can step up for my team when they’re needing me.”

He averages 7.3 yards a carry, and is just behind Whitehead with 6.8 tackles a game.

“Their linebackers and D-line are a lot better as far as stopping the run,” Carroll said. “We’re going to get the box loaded up and they’re going to try to stop the run, even though Tyler’s not here.”

Johnston is also a running threat, with 265 yards on 80 carries and 10 rushing touchdowns.

Since an adjustment in offensive philosophy and priority after losing to FPD, Johnston has completed at least 62 percent of his passes in every game, and has thrown for five touchdowns with no interceptions.

“We picked up our tempo,” Jefferson said. “We like to run the play back to back to back to get the defense off balance. I feel like we adjusted to it pretty well.”

Carroll has spent the week combining confidence and concern. Knowing what to do and doing it are always two different things.

Especially with what’s at stake.

“I’m excited, don’t get me wrong,” said Carroll, who last coached in a state championship game in 1997 with Tift County, a 21-7 loss to Parkview in the GHSA Class 4A finale. “There’s a big task at hand on Saturday night. And they have a confidence, like, “(Dang), Coach …’

“If our kids focus, I think we’re going to play well, and that’s the main thing right now.”